Designers
research into total human experience, not merely customer
experience.
Today, many companies create such new jobs as cognitive
psychologists, social anthropologists, cross-cultural
specialists who adapt products of global brands to markets with
different values and mentality, as well as ethnographers...
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Learn something about the country,
local customs, and cultural sensitivities to avoid making faux
pas while abroad...
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What is Culture?

Culture
in general is concerned with beliefs and values on the basis of which people
interpret experiences and behave, individually and in groups. Broadly and
simply put, "culture" refers to a group or community with which you share
common experiences that shape the way you understand the world.

The same person, thus, can belong to several
different cultures depending on his or her birthplace; nationality;
ethnicity; family status; gender; age; language; education; physical
condition; sexual orientation; religion; profession; place of work and its
corporate culture.

Culture is often at the root of
communication challenges. Exploring
historical experiences and the ways in which various cultural groups have
related to each other is key to opening channels for
cross-cultural communication. Becoming more aware of cultural
differences, as well as exploring cultural similarities, can help you
communicate with others more effectively. Next time you find yourself in a
confusing situation, ask yourself how culture may be shaping your own reactions,
and try to see the world from the other's point of view.

A US-based multicultural team at DuPont gained
around US$45 million in new business by changing the way decorating
materials are developed and marketed. The changes included new colors that
team members new, from their experience within other cultures, would appeal
more to their overseas customers.6

For instance, in the U.S., trust is
"demonstrated performance over time". Here you can gain the trust of your
colleagues by "coming through" and delivering on time on your commitments.
In many other parts of the world, including many Arab, Asian and Latin
American countries, building relationships is a pre-requisite for
professional interactions. Building trust in these countries often involves
lengthy discussions on non-professional topics and shared meals in
restaurants. Work-related discussions start only once your counterpart has
become comfortable with you as a person.

Cultural differences in multicultural
teams can
create misunderstandings between team members before they have had a chance
to establish any credibility with each other. Thus, building trust is a
critical step in creation and development of such teams. As a manager of a
multicultural team, you need to recognize that building trust between
different people is a complex process, since each culture has its own way of
building trust and its own
interpretation of what trust is.

Respecting Differences and
Working Together

Anthropologists discovered that, when faced by
interaction that we do not understand, people tend to interpret the others
involved as "abnormal", "weird" or "wrong"5.

Awareness of cultural differences and
recognizing where cultural differences are at work is the first step toward
understanding each other and establishing a positive working environment.
Use these differences to
challenge your own assumptions about the "right"
way of doing things and as a chance to learn new ways to solve problems.

Case in Point
Eye Contact

In some cultures,
looking people in the eye is assumed to indicate honesty and
straightforwardness; in others it is seen as challenging and rude. In USA, the cheapest, most effective way to
connect with people is to look them
into the eye.

"Most people in Arab cultures share a great deal of eye contact and may
regard too little as disrespectful. In English culture, a certain amount of
eye contact is required, but too much makes many people uncomfortable. In
South Asian and many other cultures direct eye contact is generally regarded
as aggressive and rude."8...
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Harness the Power of
Diversity

Diversity
is a specialized term describing a workplace that includes people from
various backgrounds and cultures, and/or diverse businesses.

You can find a strategic competitive advantage
in an organizational and cultural context by seeking to leverage, rather
than diminish, opposite forces. "An important but widely overlooked
principle of business success is that integrating opposites, as opposed to
identifying them as inconsistencies and driving them out, unleashes power.
This is true on both a personal level (the
balanced manager is more effective than his or her peer at one end of
the control spectrum) and on
organizational level as well.

The Cultural Fit.
A
candidate for a top job might look great on paper, but must be
culturally compatible in order to build relationships and add true
value.
Often, hiring managers
or boards emphasize the need to challenge old thinking and move in new
directions. But if an executive is too far out of step with an
organization, the resulting culture clash can overwhelm the benefits...
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Discouraging Culture:
no shared values;
lack of trust;
blame culture; focus on problems, not opportunities; diversity is not
celebrated; failures are not tolerated; people lose confidence in their
leaders and systems...
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Maintain eye contact. In the US, not making eye contact has the
connotation of someone untrustworthy. But realize, too, that steady eye
contact in some cultures is considered impolite or aggressive...
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